Adding Push Pull Pot to Strat HSS

Hi All,

I have a Fender American Stratocaster HSS that I am upgrading the HB to a Bareknuckle Mule. While I do that, I want to add a Push Pull volume pot to enable coil tapping the HB in position 5 to enable HB or tap to Single Coil. I have looked around, and see a wiring diagram on the seymour duncan website I can use.

I have a 250K Dimarzio pot coming, and getting ready to do the mod.I understand an HB is better running at 500K. Can I add a 250K resistor to the 250K pot on the full HB circuit, or do I need a 500K pot?

Thanks!

You would need a 500K pot. Adding a 250K fixed resistor to a 250K pot, either in series or parallel, will not give you the control behavior you're looking for. But before you order one, I'd install the 250K you already have coming, and see how it sounds to you. If the humbucker doesn't sound bright enough with the 250K, you can always change it to a 500K.

I recently converted a Squier Classic Vibe Strat to an HSS configuration, adding a DiMarzio Air Norton at the bridge. To make sure that the new humbucker is in phase with the single coils and remains hum-canceling when the coil-split bridge & middle pickup combo is selected, you'll need to know its magnetic and electrical polarity, and wire it in accordingly. I posted about that upgrade HERE and HERE. I can provide additional details, if needed.

Thanks for this info! I believe the pot in there right now is a 250k. I think initially, I may just replace the HB and see how it sounds. If it works, I can then replace the tone pot for the push pull - baby steps... this is my first guitar mod. I'm almost tempted to buy an additional HSS loaded pick guard and play with it and I can keep the original intact...

Just to check, if I go with a 500K pot, do I need to add resistors in parallel to the Single coil to reduce the resistance?

Thanks!

No, you don't want to mess around with the resistance of the pickups themselves. If you find the single coils to be too bright with a 500K volume pot, you could solder a 1.5 Mohm resistor across the terminals of the 500K pot to reduce its effective max. resistance to 375K. This would split the difference between the 500K and 250K pots and might give you a good compromise. It will alter the pot taper slightly, but I doubt it would even be noticeable.

Thanks, I appreciate the response!